Leather-working machine.



No 867,527. PATE NTED OCT. 1, 1907;

F. 10. PACKARD. LEATHER WORKING MACHINE. APPLICATION TILED 1130.6,1906.

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No. 867,527. I PATENTED 0'01; 1, 1907.

P. c. PAGKARD. LEATHER WORKING MACHINE.

APPLIOATIOH FILED D30. 6, 1906.

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FRED O. PACKARD, OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS.

LEATHER-WORKING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 1 1907.

Application filed December 6, 1906. Serial No. 346,610.

of which the following is a specification, reference be- 1 ing hadtherein to the accompanying drawings.

In leather working machines employed in tanneries for performingvarious-operations, but more especially for shaving, the skin or hideis'supported on a bed roll and is fed by means of the rotation of thebed roll and of a pinch roll which cooperates therewith to the operatingtool which is provided with spiral blades which perform the desiredoperation upon the skin. The operating tool revolves at a high rate ofspeed and its blades shave the skin or perform the other desiredoperation upon it. Great difficulty has been found in this class ofmachinery in causing feeding instrumentalities to feed the skin to theoperating tool in such a manner that the skin lies perfectly flat on thebed roll and without wrinkles. If the skin is wrinkled or folded, thetool tends to cut or otherwise injure it, or works it unevenly. To thisend, I have made my present invention with the object of insuring thatthe skin be smooth and flat upon the bed roll, so that it is uniformlyoperated upon by the operating tool. My contrivance is exceedinglysimple, but entirely effective in its operation. It may be employed on avariety of leather working machines of the general character described.I have, however, shown it in connection with a type of machinefrequently employed in tanneries. In this type of machine, the bed rollor work support is automatically swung into and out of engagement withthe pinch roll and the operating tool. It will be understood, of course,that my improved spreader board may be employed in connection with othermachines for performing the same class of work.

The invention will be fully understood from the following descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the novelfeatures thereof are pointed out and clearly defined in the claims atthe close of the specification.

Referring to the drawings,-Figure 1 is a front elevation of the machineembodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same.

In the drawings,at A is indicated the frame of the machine, upon whichare supported the swing arms B which are caused to oscillate at properintervals by any well-known mechanism. I have not thought it necessaryto show in detail theoperating mechanism,

1 as it forms no part of my invention. The spirally bladed tool isindicated at E. The swing arms B carry at their upper ends the worksupport or bed roll F which is preferably covered with rubber or someslightly elastic covering. When in operative position, as shown in Fig.2, the bed roll supports the skin to be operated on in contact with apinch roll G suitably said parts are given their proper movement in thewellknown manner by any convenient mechanism.

On the upper ends of the swing arms B is supported the spreader board Hby means of the brackets I. The spreader board H is made. of anyconvenient material, preferably of wood, and has its upper edge curvedto form the arc of a circle of large diameter, as shown in the drawings.The upper edge is also rounded, as shown in section in Fig. 2, so thatthe skins or hides which are thrown successively over the upper edge ofthe spreader board may be fed from the spreader board to the rollswithout injury to the texture of the skins. It will be seen that thespreader board being carried by the upper ends of the swing arms isalways maintained in a fixed relation to the bed roll.

The operator in using a. machine in which is embodied my inventionthrows the skin to be worked over the curved edge of the spreader board,allowing the free end to fall over the surface of the bed roll in such aposition as to be seized by the pinch roll and thus caused to be fed tothe operating tool. The rotation of the bed roll and pinch roll causesthe skin to bedrawn over the curved edge of the spreader board and theoperator during this movement retards the movement of the skin on thespreader board slightly, so that it contacts firmly with the upper edgeof the spreader board. The skin, as it is drawn by the said rolls overthe spreader board, is spread out perfectly smooth and passes betweenthe bed roll and the pinch roll in an entirely fiat condition andwithout wrinkles or folds. As will be seen from the drawings, thehighest point of the upper edge of the spreader board is somewhat abovethe bite of the rolls, this being desirable to obtain the best resultsfrom the board.

The use of my improved spreader board obviates the necessity for usingspirally bladed spreading rolls or ribbed spreader boards, such as haveheretofore been sometimes employed, but at the same time equally goodresults are obtained with less effort on the part of larly convenientfor the operator, the whole being at a convenient height and in such aposition on the masupported in the frame of the machine. All theaforethe operator. The improved spreader board is particu- I chine thatthe hide is easily put in place and without of a spreader board whoseupper edge is in the form of a 10 curve, the highest point of said curvebeing above the point danger to fingers of the Operator of contact ofthe feeding instrumentalities.

What I 01mm 153 In testimony whereof I aflix my signature, in presenceof 1. The improved spreader for leather working machines two witnesses.comprising a board over the working edge of which the skin or hide isfed, the said working edge being in the form FRED PACKARD of a curve inthe plane of the board. Witnesses:

2. The combination with feeding mechanism for the GEORGE P. DIKE,operating instrumentalities of a leather working machine ALICE H.MORRISON.

